Parenting With Savoir Faire

The French parent even manages to cope with Savoir Faire!

Author Unknown

I am not lost, I am not found


Like petals strewn across the ground,


There is no pattern, yet there is


The configuration lies within,


We are close, yet we are apart,


The perspective is of my heart,


What I see is what I am



And I see before me an impoverished man


I am what I see


Take blood from stone to forge this heart


And Stone from blood to carve this craft


From unknown whim this mortal stands



The Breath of life in these hands

Savoir Faire in the Rouff!

Are some of today’s arbiters of style and design going to be as well known in the future as what they are today? Or are they going to join the ranks of forgotten couturiers whose names only exist for the design savvy? Of course there are houses that will be around for eternity, like Chanel, Dior and St Laurent. However will Lacroix or others be forgotten in 50 years time?

There are so many names like Worth, Molyneux, Paquin, Desses whose names are only in Museums and fashion history texts. One such name is Maggy Rouff. Born Maggie Besançon de Wagner in Paris, 1896, she worked in her parent’s couture house of Drecoll, before opening on her own as Maggy Rouff in 1929.

Harmony and simplicity were cornerstones of Maggy Rouff's belief in elegance as a way of life, and the way of fashion. A truly elegant woman was in harmony with her environment and herself, and to Rouff this meant being properly dressed for every occasion. Patrons of her salon were secure in the knowledge that they would emerge with the right clothes, clothes that were fashionable, flattering, and appropriate. This did not mean she was conservative; rather, she believed novelty, and even surprise, were good for fashion. Novelty when allied with taste yielded chic, but novelty without taste was only eccentric.




A Rouff design was always “just right”, never too little or too much. A focal point was established in every costume, whether it be in the trimming, the cut of a sleeve or bodice, or the use of contrasting fabrics in swathes of fabric across the hips. Surfaces were enriched with different textures such as shirring or quilting. Her designs always enhanced an underlying sense of feminity.

Sarong-like style drapes of skirts, soft folds at a neckline, wrapped and tied surplice fronts and dramatic sleeves were a favoured feature and were common themes that ran through Rouff’s designs. Accents were also important and were always in perfect balance and proportion with the whole outfit, such as the embroidery on the evening dress below.


In 1942 while Paris was occupied by German troops, Rouff wrote La Philosophie de L'Elégance. Her justification for what might have been considered in such circumstances a frivolous topic was her belief that even in darkest times there must be faith in the future. Her book was, in a sense, an affirmation of the value and substance which the arts of elegance had given to her life and her success.


Rouff's daughter, Anne-Marie, took over the designing upon her mother's retirement in 1948. The house maintained the attitudes toward dress it had always expressed, and the clothes were still elegant and feminine, however it took a while for Anne-Marie to find her mother’s sense of equilibrium where design was concerned.

*Princess Grace of Monaco in a Rouff design

The house of Maggy Rouff did not survive the make-or-break period of the 1960s. Three designers worked for the house in the 1960s, during which time the business was transformed into a ready-to-wear house. The collections seem to have been aimed at a younger customer, but the original precepts of the house may have made it difficult to become established with a clientéle more interested in the pursuit of youth than the pursuit of elegance. The company was closed before Rouff's death in 1971.

Rouff once described herself as a couturier, deliberately rejecting the female title of couturière, "for I make a great distinction between the two terms," she said. "The couturier is a general who is more or less qualified, and who has, under his command, an army of collaborators. A couturière can, indeed, be very great and important . . . but the word by itself implies a knowledge and experience of manual labor. And I scarcely know how to cut!"

In the Doghouse with Savoir Faire

Traveling across the Atlantic on the French Line with your pet (Think, Dali and pet ocelot here) didn’t mean that your pet didn’t forsake any of the luxury that you as passenger were provided with.


The Normandie had a traditional ship like silhouette of the 1930’s with three squat funnels resembling medieval castle ramparts. The public demanded this as they deemed a ship with more funnels the largest, fastest and also the safest. The funnels on the Normandie subscribed to this and gave the ship its magnificent lines. The difference with the Normandie was that of these three funnels only two were functioning. The third was a dummy and added purely for aesthetic reasons.

The question then being what do we do with a third funnel that isn’t functioning? Answer being it was the perfect place to house the kennels for the pets that the wealthy clientele of the Normandie were so used to travelling with. Inside this dummy funnel were recreation areas and kennels for said pampered pooches.

To quote the current press of the day ‘the dogs live comfortably behind stainless steel bars that surround their oval room at the centre of which is a drinking fountain. The kennels are ventilated and steam heated, fresh beds of straw provided daily, and the dogs are always allowed exercise daily on the top decks.’ Out on deck a fire hydrant was provided for American dogs and a lamppost for French dogs for the call of nature. There were even life preservers in a variety of sizes in the case of an emergency. A special menu was also printed in French offering a choice of bones, soups, biscuits and vegetables. In case our canine tourist was indisposed, a veterinarian onboard helps him back on his sea legs.


I think these pampered pooches travelling First Class in the 1930’s were probably a bit more comfortable than the mass of immigrants that were travelling steerage at the beginning of the century.

Deck the Halls with a Conscience

Ok, I am succumbing and there is no escaping it! Christmas is coming and all the decorations are up, merchants are pushing their wears and money is being made. I usually think December 1st is a good date to start thinking Christmas and hauling the decorations out.

So why not decorate with a conscience and buy your decorations from somewhere where you know that it is also going to help others into the bargain! (Isn’t this part of the Christmas spirit). As most of you know I volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages (an organisation that promotes sustainable employment within developing nations, while supporting fair trade) and we have lots of great reasonably priced decorations to get you in the decorating mood.

So feast your eyes on these baubles for your tree, which are reasonably priced and create an impact in more ways than one!

Have you seen the Macbeth's lately?

They are quite changed.

Savoir Faire is always enamoured with modern day interpretations of the classics. Whether the adaptation is in the form of a movie, play, opera or any other form of visual art, I am always excited to see what people have come up with.

Even before Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet producers were putting there own spin on things. From epic costume dramas to minimalistic shows, we have been served a visual feast of the Bard from Stratford’s plays.

The plays of Shakespeare are no exception. I would imagine that ever since they were first performed, producers, actors and actresses had their own ideas of how they should be portrayed. Macbeth has been one of the most performed and now ranks as one of the most recognised, which makes it an ideal candidate for new adaptation.

Here are a few examples of the modern day Macbeth’s. In my opinion they haven’t looked so good. One can not away from the violence and malevolent undertones in the play and these modern day adaptations have capitalised on this perfectly, with just the right notes of seduction.

Just wondering what the man himself would have thought of these?